Friday, August 22, 2014

Robin Williams' TV character Mork was a pop culture phenomenon. His wacky, anything goes style fit perfectly with Cracked Magazine's askew take on the world. Cracked loved Mork, featuring him on the cover of seven issues within 1979 and 1980. He was so popular he edged out Gary Coleman and Penny Marshall, two other Cracked favorites, for cover face time. Covers meant be drawn by Cracked mainstay John Severin. Severin, a legendary comics artist with a knack for likenesses, seems like he had fun drawing Williams' malleable mug.

His second regular issue paired him with Coleman, another character who dominated Cracked covers at the time (#161, August 1979)

Pam Dawber gets cover time again with Williams, just two issues later! I wonder if Severin thought up those pants as Mork's beachwear. (#163, October 1979)

Here he is again, this time cracking up the logo as well (#167, March 1980).

The last time we would see Mork on a cover, in this "Love Boat" parody (#187, July 1982). The fourth and final season of "Mork and Mindy" ended a couple of months before this.

Here's Williams at the center of this collection of his peers. (Collector's Edition #32, November 1979)

Mork had two "Collectors' Edition" covers all to himself. The only TV/movie character to do so. (#35, May 1980).

(#29, May 1979)

John Severin's original art for Cracked Collectors' Edition #29.

Cracked Magazine would later do parodies of other Robin Williams' movies - "Hook" (#272, July 1992), "Flubber" (#326, July 1998) and "Patch Adams" (#334, May 1999). But Williams was never on the cover again. Those '90s issues are hard to find, so I'm not even sure if Severin ever drew Williams again, but it's a good bet that he did.

While Williams earned his way out of Mork's shadow through stand-up specials and dramatic roles, for millions of viewers who recall being excited by his weekly antics, he would always be Mork. So, I'll leave you with this parody by Severin from Cracked #164 (November 1979):

Saturday, August 9, 2014

The cover of the latest issue of Comics Revue (June 2014) features Milton Caniff artwork commemorating the bicentennial. This issue reprints the "Steve Canyon" strips from February 18 to March 17, 1973. It is the conclusion to of a sequence that has Steve on a mission in Israel. The intrigue puts him at odds with an early nemesis, Captain Akoola, now robbed of her beauty.

The Famous Artists School is an art correspondence course created in 1948 by illustrator Albert Dorne. Caniff (pictured bottom right) was attached to the school as one of the instructors for a couple of decades, though I'm unsure what involvement he had. I know his work was part of the instruction courses, but I don't think he was involved in the grading/evaluating of submissions. The school still exists, and they even have the classic cartooning course available.

Robert and Magdalen Livesey, who purchased the Famous Artists School in 1981, have donated the school's archives to the Norman Rockwell Museum. The archives are unorganized at this time, so who knows what Caniff artifacts they may unearth!

You can read more about the donation here. For information about the founding of the school and it's founder, Albert Dorne, I recommend this book.

The Eisner Awards were given out July 25th at Comic Con International in San Diego. The event had a couple of Milton Caniff connections. Jenny Robb, curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, was one of the judges. The Library was founded on Caniff's archives. The Library of American Comics (LOAC) took home awards in three categories. The LOAC is the publisher of "The Complete Steve Canyon" series. Congratulations to Dean Mullaney, Bruce Canwell and Lorraine Turner of the LOAC. You can fine their reaction here. A complete list of winners can be found her

Speaking of the LOAC, they recently announced a new project reprinting Corto Maltese. Corto Maltese is considered by many to be the masterpiece of Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt. Pratt's art was greatly influenced by Caniff. I'm excited to read some Pratt in English, as all I've read were from the Pratt-edited "Sgt. Kirk" magazine, which is in Italian. Pratt was apparently comfortable with the comparison, as he reprinted Caniff's "Male Call" strips in "Sgt. Kirk" alongside his own work.

The 12-volume "Corto Maltese" series will be edited by Dean Mullaney, but published under a new IDW imprint - EuroComics, beginning in December.

The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) has launched a digital magazine - the National Cartoonist. The magazine is available to read online for free at this link. The issue includes a report on the recent Reuben awards, a profile of Jim Borgman, and an article about the brief return of Bill Watterson to the comics page.

The NCS published a print magazine - The American Cartoonist - in the late '70s, and an annual Reuben awards magazine - The Cartoonist - for several decades. Milton Caniff was a founding NCS member, a past president, a two-time Reuben award winner and is the namesake of its lifetime achievement award.